Refrigerator door having multiple stop positions

ABSTRACT

A refrigerator and a method of removing a stored item from the refrigerator. A hinge device couples the refrigerator door to the refrigerator main frame and can control the door to be opened in a multiple stepwise manner. The hinge device includes a compressive member and a hinge bracket having a protruding portion. When the door is pulled by a user to rotate to a first rotation angle, the compressible member comes into contact with the protruding portion of the hinge bracket and thereby blocks further motion thereof. At the first rotation angle, if the user applies additional rotational force on the door, the compressible member can be compressed such that it releases the protruding portion for further motion, thereby allowing the door to be opened to a wider angle.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims benefit and priority to Korean PatentApplication No. 10-2014-0134161, filed on Oct. 6, 2014, with the KoreanIntellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporatedherein in its entirety by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to a refrigerator and a method of usingthe same, and more particularly, to doors of a refrigerator.

BACKGROUND

In general, a refrigerator is an apparatus that keeps food items cold orfrozen using refrigerant circulating in a cooling cycle. In arefrigerator, a cooling system is installed at the back of a freezingchamber, and cold air is circulated within the refrigerator by a fan.

A refrigerator has a storage chamber for storing food items or othertypes of items. The temperature in the storage chamber is maintained ata certain range as required to keep the food fresh. The storage chamberusually includes a freezing chamber and a refrigerating chamber whichare maintained at different temperature ranges.

Refrigerators can be classified into different types, includinghigh-grade type and general type based on the number of freezingchambers or refrigerating chambers, their size, and their price, etc.

Typically, general type refrigerators are much more inexpensive and thuseconomic for home use, but usually lack many convenient features andfunctions that are available in the high-grade type refrigerators. Inparticular, high-grade type refrigerators are usually equipped with ahome bar dedicated for storing beverages and having its own door so thatusers can conveniently access beverages without exposing other storeditems to ambient room temperature. Unfortunately, this feature is nottypically provided in general type refrigerators due to the associatedhigh manufacturing cost. To access a beverage stored in a general typerefrigerator, a user has to open the refrigerator door, which inevitablyexposes the entire storage room to ambient room temperature and causesunwanted cold air escape from the storage chamber.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure is directed to a refrigerator enabling a user toconveniently access intended items stored therein while preventingunnecessary loss of cold air from the refrigerator.

An exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure provides arefrigerator including: a refrigerator main body having a storagechamber; a door covering the storage chamber of the refrigerator mainbody; and an open angle adjusting hinge device installed on therefrigerator main body. The hinge device is coupled to one side of thedoor and operable to automatically control an open angle at which thedoor is stopped at.

The door may include a beverage container compartment installed on theinterior side of the door and adjacent to the unhinged edge of the door.The beverage container can accommodate one or more beverage containers.A plurality of door baskets for supporting the beverage containers maybe installed in the beverage container compartment.

The beverage container compartment may be installed to be elongatedvertically along the unhinged side of the door. The plurality of thedoor baskets may be arranged vertically in a longitudinal direction ofthe beverage container compartment.

The open angle adjusting hinge device may include: a hinge shaft whichis a rotation center of the door; a hinge bracket having a protrudingportion protruding away from the hinge shaft; and a compressible member(or an elastic catching portion) coupled to the door so that theprotruding portion of the hinge bracket is blocked (or caught) by thecompressible member as the door is rotated to a first rotation angle.The hinge bracket is coupled to the refrigerator main body and supportsthe hinge shaft.

By using the open angle adjusting hinge device, the door may be openedin a multiple stepwise manner. For example, when the door is firstpulled open by a user from a closed state, it can automatically stop atan acute first rotation angle. Then, if the user applies additionalrotational force to the door, the door can be opened wider until a muchgreater second rotation angle is reached.

When the door is opened to the first rotation angle, the protrudingportion of the hinge bracket may be blocked by the compressible member.When the door is opened to a wider angle until the second rotation angle(a second stop angle) is reached, the protruding portion of the hingebracket may pass over the compressible member while the compressiblemember is in a compressed state. The first rotation angle may be withina range of 15 degrees to 25 degrees.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, a user mayadvantageously place frequently accessed items adjacent to the free edgeof the door. Thus these items can be later accessed while the doorautomatically stops at the acute first stop position, e.g., a half openposition. A user can advantageously and conveniently access intendeditems therein without causing unnecessary loss of cold air from therefrigerator.

The foregoing summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be inany way limiting. In addition to the illustrative aspects, embodiments,and features described above, further aspects, embodiments, and featureswill become apparent by reference to the drawings and the followingdetailed description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a perspective view of an exemplary refrigeratordesign according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 illustrates a perspective view of the exemplary refrigerator ofFIG. 1 with the door in the fully open position.

FIG. 3 illustrates a top view of the configuration of an exemplary hingeconfiguration of the refrigerator door according to an embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 4 illustrates a perspective view of the refrigerator door in FIG. 1in an operational state.

FIGS. 5 and 6 illustrates the hinge configuration of the exemplaryrefrigerator door of FIG. 1 in different operational states.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following detailed description, reference is made to theaccompanying drawing, which form a part hereof. The illustrativeembodiments described in the detailed description, drawings, and claimsare not meant to be limiting. Other embodiments may be utilized, andother changes may be made, without departing from the spirit or scope ofthe subject matter presented here.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will bedescribed in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings so thatthose skilled in the technical field to which the present disclosurepertains may easily carry out the exemplary embodiments. The presentdisclosure may be implemented in various different forms, and is notlimited to the exemplary embodiments described herein.

It should be noted that the drawings are schematically illustrated, andthe scales of the drawings may be different from the actual scales.Relative dimensions and ratios of the parts illustrated in the drawingsmay be exaggerated or reduced in terms of sizes thereof forclarification of the drawings and convenience, and any dimension is onlyillustrative, and is not limited thereto. The same structures, elementsor components illustrated in two or more drawings are designated by thesame reference numerals so as to illustrate similar features.

The exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure is specificallydisclosed as an ideal exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Asa result, various modifications of the drawings are expected. Therefore,the exemplary embodiment is not limited to specific forms in regionsillustrated in the drawings, and for example, further includes modifiedforms by the manufacture.

Hereinafter, a refrigerator according to an exemplary embodiment of thepresent disclosure will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the exemplary refrigerator 101 according toan embodiment of the present disclosure includes a refrigerator mainbody 100, doors 200, and an open angle adjusting hinge device 300(illustrated in FIG. 3).

The refrigerator main body 100 has one or more storage chambers 110. Therefrigerator main body 100 illustrated in FIG. 1 has a pair of storagechambers 110 disposed vertically with respect to each other, each withits own door. It is apprecaited that the exemplary embodiment of thepresent disclosure is not limited thereto. That is, the refrigeratormain body 100 may have a pair of storage chambers 110 disposedhorizontally with respect to each other, or may have three or morestorage chambers 110 etc.

The storage chambers 110 of the refrigerator main body 100 may include arefrigerating chamber and a freezing chamber based on the temperaturerange at which each chamber is matianined. The two storage chambers 110can maintain stored items cold and frozen, respectively.

In FIG. 2, the doors of both storage chambers 110 are open. The door 200is installed on the front side of the lower storage chamber 110 andserves to isolate the interior of the lower storage chamber 110 from theambient temperature, thereby keeping the lower storage chamber 110 at alow temperature.

More specifically, the door 200 is rotatably installed at one side ofthe refrigerator main body 100. In the exemplary embodiment of thepresent disclosure, the door 200 may include a beverage containercompartment 250 proximate to the free edge (or unhinged edge) of thedoor 200. In this example, a plurality of door baskets 255 forsupporting beverage containers are arranged vertically with respect toeach other in the beverage container compartment 250.

Since the beverage container compartment 250 is formed adjacent to thefree side of the door 200, the beverage containers accommodated in thebeverage container compartment 250 can be easily retrieved by a usereven when the door 200 is not fully open. Further, the side wall of thedoor basket 255 that is adjacent to the free edge of the door 200 may beshorter than the opposite side wall, making it further convenient forusers to access the items stored in the door basket even when the dooris not fully open.

In the exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the door 200 mayfurther include a first door liner 261 and a second door liner 262respectively disposed along the two longitudinal sides of the beveragecontainer compartment 250. In this example, the first door liner 261 isshorter than the second door liner 262. Both door liners 261 and 262protrude toward the refrigerator main body 100.

The first door liner 261 and the second door liner 262 serve toeffectively assist in maintaining a substantially airtight seal in thestorage chamber 110 when the door 200 is closed. The first door liner261 and the second door liner 262 also serve to support both sidesurfaces of the door basket 255, respectively.

For example, the area of the door basket 255 that is supported by thesecond door liner 262 may be larger than the area of the door basket 255that is supported by the first door liner 261.

With the aforementioned structural configuration, the beverage containeraccommodated in the beverage container compartment 250 can be easilytaken out even by a user when the door 200 is not fully open.

As illustrated in FIG. 3, the open angle adjusting hinge device 300couples the door 200 to the main body 100 such that the door 200 isrotatable. The hinge device 300 can control the angle at which the door200 is stopped. The open angle adjusting hinge device 300 includes ahinge shaft 360, a hinge bracket 310, and a compressible member 320.

The hinge shaft 360 forms the rotation center of the door 200. The hingebracket 310 is coupled to the refrigerator main body 100 and surroundsand supports the hinge shaft 360.

In the exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the hinge bracket310 has a protruding portion 311 protruding away from the hinge shaft360. The compressible member 320 is coupled to the door 200. When thedoor pivots or rotates around the hinged side, it tends to stop at theposition (the caught position) where the protruding portion 311 comesinto contact and is stopped (or caught) by the compressible member 320.The contact between protruding portion 311 and the compressible member320 forms a large resistance to the pivoting motion of the door suchthat the door is stopped from rotating further.

However, at the caught position, if the compressible member 320 issubject to additional rotational force (e.g., the user pulls the doorharder) that can overcome the native elastic force thereof, thecompressible member 320 becomes compressed and thereby releases theprotruding portion 311. Consequently, the protruding portion 311 passesover the compressible member 320 such that the door 200 is opened at alarger open angle.

With the aforementioned structure, the open angle adjusting hinge device300 can advantageoulsy and automatically control the open angle of thedoor 200 by the interplay of the protruding portion 311 of the hingebracket 310 and the compressible member 320. More specifically, when auser pulls the door 200 open, the open angle of the door is firstrestricted by the open angle adjusting hinge device 320. To open thedoor wider, yet, the user has to pull the door with an additionalrotational force.

Thus, according to embodiments of the present disclosure, the door canbe opened in a multiple stepwise manner through vairous open positions.When a user pulls the door to open, the door rotates around the hingeand automatically stops at at an acute angle (the first rotation angle)because of the resistance caused by the interplay beween thecompressible member and the protruding portion of the hinge bracket. Ifthe user applies an additional rotational force to overcome theresistance, the door can then be opened to a wider angle.

As illustrated in FIG. 4 and FIG. 5, the first rotation angle θ1 is anacute angle between the refrigerator main body 100 and the door 200. Atthis angle, the user likely can only conveniently access a limitedamount of interior space near the free side of the door 200, e.g., itemslocated in the beverage container compartment. As shown in FIG. 6. Thesecond rotation angle θ2 is greater than the first rotation angle θ1 andallows a user to conveniently access items within the entire interiorspace of the storage chamber 110.

In some embodiments, the first rotation angle θ1 may be within a rangeof 15 degrees to 25 degrees. In the illustrated example, this angle θ1allows a user to access items stored in the beverage containercompartment 250 while preventing unnecessary escape of the cool air fromthe storage chamber.

Hereinafter, an exemplary method of accessing an item stored in therefrigerator 101 according to an embodiment of the present disclosurewill be described with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6.

The beverage container compartment 250 is provided on the interior sideof the door 200 and can be used to accommodate beverage containers.First, as illustrated in FIG. 5, the door 200 is pulled to open by auser and stops automatically at the first rotation angle θ1 which is anacute angle. Thereafter, the beverage containers accommodated in thebeverage container compartment 250 are accessed and taken out from therefrigerator by the user.

More specifically, when the user opens the door 200 to the firstrotation angle θ1, the compressible member 320 comes into contact withthe protruding portion 311 such that the protruding portion 311 isblocked by the compressible member 320. That is, the compressible member320 comes into contact with the protruding portion 311, such that theopen angle of the door 200 is limited to the first rotation angle θ1until the elastic force of the compressible member 320 is overcome.

As illustrated in FIG. 6, when the door is opened to the first rotationangle θ1 and the user continues to pull it, e.g., by using an additionalor greater rotational force, the protruding portion 311 presses thecompressible member 320 to a compressed state such that the compressiblemember 320 passes over the protruding portion 311. Thus, the door can beopened further until the second rotation angle θ2 is reached which isgreater than θ1 (e.g., 25 degrees).

In the embodiments of the present disclosure, the compressible member320 may be made of silicone, rubber, or any other suitable elasticmaterial.

With the aforementioned configuration and method, the refrigerator 101can selectively restrict or adjust the open angle of the door, whichallows a user to conveniently access the particular part of the storagechamber designed for frequently intended items while reduces unnecessaryloss of cold air from the storage chamber. In some embodiments, theparticular part can be used to accommodate beverages and thus functionsas a home bar. Hence, according to embodiments of the presentdisclosure, various functions of a home bar can be advantageouslyintegrated into a relatively low-cost refrigerator and thereby providesbetter user experience thereof.

From the foregoing, it will be appreciated that various embodiments ofthe present disclosure have been described herein for purposes ofillustration, and that various modifications may be made withoutdeparting from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure.Accordingly, the various embodiments disclosed herein are not intendedto be limiting, with the true scope and spirit being indicated by thefollowing claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A refrigerator comprising: a refrigerator mainbody comprising one or more storage chambers therein; a door hingedlycoupled to the refrigerator main body; and a hinge device coupling thedoor to the refrigerator main body and configured to cause the door toopen through multiple open positions.
 2. The refrigerator of claim 1further comprising a beverage container compartment disposed on the doorand adjacent to a free edge of the door and configured to accommodateone or more beverage containers.
 3. The refrigerator of claim 2 furthercomprising a plurality of door baskets disposed within the beveragecontainer compartment and configured to support the one or more beveragecontainers.
 4. The refrigerator of claim 3, wherein the beveragecontainer compartment extends vertically along the free edge of thedoor, and wherein further the plurality of the door baskets are arrangedvertically in a longitudinal direction of the beverage containercompartment.
 5. The refrigerator of claim 3, wherein a door basket ofthe plurality of door baskets comprises a first side wall and a secondside wall that is lower than the first side wall, wherein the first sidewall is disposed closer to the free edge of the door than the secondside wall.
 6. The refrigerator of claim 5, wherein the door furthercomprises: a first door liner configured to be disposed along an edge ofthe beverage container compartment proximate to the free edge of thedoor and protrude toward the refrigerator main body; and a second doorliner configured to be disposed on another edge of the beveragecontainer compartment, wherein the first door liner is shorter than thesecond door liner.
 7. The refrigerator of claim 6, wherein the firstdoor liner and the second door liner are operable to support twosurfaces of the door basket, respectively.
 8. The refrigerator of claim7, wherein an area of the door basket that is supported by the seconddoor liner is larger than an area of the door basket that is supportedby the first door liner.
 9. The refrigerator of claim 1, wherein thehinge device comprises: a hinge shaft operable to be disposed at arotation center of the door; a hinge bracket coupled to the refrigeratormain body and the hinge shaft, wherein the hinge basket comprises aprotruding portion protruding away from the hinge shaft; and acompressible member coupled to the hinge bracket and operable to stopthe door at a first open position at a first rotation angle withreference to the refrigerator main body where the protruding portioncomes in contact with the compressible member.
 10. The refrigerator ofclaim 9, wherein, when the door is at the first rotation angle, theprotruding portion of the hinge bracket is operable to compress saidcompressible member wherein the door rotates to a second open positionat a second rotation angle that is greater than the first rotationangle.
 11. The refrigerator of claim 10, wherein the protruding portionof the hinge bracket detaches from the compressible member when the dooris at the second rotation angle.
 12. The refrigerator of claim 10,wherein the first rotation angle is within a range of 15 degrees to 25degrees.
 13. The refrigerator of claim 10, wherein the door is subjectto a rotational force applied by a user when the compressible member iscompressed to the compressed state.
 14. A refrigerator comprising: arefrigerator main body comprising one or more storage chambers therein;a door hingedly coupled to the refrigerator main body; a hinge devicecoupling the door to the refrigerator main body and configured to causethe door to open through an intermediate open position that requiresadditional opening force to pass through to a fully open position; and aliner that restrict flow of cold air from the storage chambers when thedoor is in the intermediate open position.
 15. The refrigerator of claim14 further comprising a beverage container compartment disposed on thedoor and adjacent to a free edge of the door and configured toaccommodate one or more beverage containers, wherein a plurality of doorbaskets are disposed within the beverage container compartment andconfigured to support the one or more beverage containers.
 16. Therefrigerator of claim 15, wherein the liner further comprises: a firstdoor liner configured to be disposed along an edge of the beveragecontainer compartment proximate to the free edge of the door andprotrude toward the refrigerator main body; and a second door linerconfigured to be disposed on another edge of the beverage containercompartment, wherein the first door liner is shorter than the seconddoor liner.
 17. A method of using a refrigerator, the method comprising:applying a rotational force on a free edge of a refrigerator door thatis in a closed state with respect to a main frame of the refrigerator,wherein the refrigerator door is coupled to the main frame via a hingedevice operable to cause the refrigerator door to automatically stop ata stop position under the rotational force; with the refrigerator doorat the first stop position, removing an item stored in a compartmentadjacent to the free edge from the refrigerator; and applying anadditional rotational force on the free edge to further open therefrigerator door.
 18. The method of claim 17, wherein the hinge devicecomprises a compressible member and a hinge bracket having a protrusionportion, wherein the protrusion portion is operable to block thecompressible member from further motion when the refrigerator door is atthe stop position.
 19. The method of claim 18, wherein the additionalrotational force causes said protrusion portion to compress saidcompressible member into a compressed state such that the refrigeratordoor is released from the stop position.